The Geometries of Dóra Maurer, from Socialist Hungary to the Europe of Today

Dynamism, transformation, perception and geometry are the constants in the work of Dóra Maurer, the Hungarian artist who grew up in the underground on the margins of the socialist regime. The Tate Modern presents her first personal exhibition on British soil - a lively and varied concentration of the experiments of a lifetime, connected with important experiences all over Europe and having a serious impact on generations of artists. From graphics, her first love in the 1950s, Maurer gradually enlarged her field of action to photography and moving pictures, eventually taking on painting, while constantly maintaining her neo-avant-garde spirit. Approximately 35 works exemplify, in this London itinerary, the playful and conceptual character of her work - from the push towards the limits of the graphic medium to abstract painting, geometrical and vivaciously colourful, moving on to the videos and photos which, in the 1960s, were surely considered courageously innovative. Ever in the background, the ferment of the community of artists, poets and musicians with whom Maurer lived symbiotically during the years of Socialism, with semi-clandestine magazines and apartments used as exhibition spaces. Finally, there are the recent works, many of which have never been seen in the United Kingdom, such as Stage II from 2016, a painted panel stretching six metres whose vivacious tones seem to flutter in three dimensions.